An Opal regains her lustre

By Stephen Howell, The Sunday Age, 25th June 1996

MICHELLE BROGAN'S place in Australia's basketball team for Atlanta was pencilled in with a tournament-best performance for the gold-medal team in the world junior championship in Seoul in mid-1993.

It was inked in after a strong and mature performance with the Opals at the senior world championship in Adelaide and Sydney in June 1994.

A week later, on Saturday 18 June, a large red question mark was placed against the name Brogan when she fell, screaming and clutching her left knee, playing for Adelaide in a women's national league game against Melbourne at the Tennis Centre. A reconstruction followed.

This month the question mark was rubbed out and, barring accident, Brogan will be on the plane to Atlanta with 11 other Opals next year.

The Opals and the men's team, the Boomers, cemented places in the Olympic tournament with wins against New Zealand in Oceania qualifying games in New South Wales during the week.

The importance of "barring accident" hit home to Brogan when she returned to Adelaide on Thursday after the 2-0 victory over the Kiwis.

Playing that night for hot favorite Noarlunga in the state league final, she fell and hurt her right ankle when attempting to steal the ball.

She was helped off court with four minutes to play and Noarlunga four points up. Her team lost by seven and she is expected to miss today's WNBL game between Adelaide and Bulleen. Fortunately the injury is minor and there will not be another reconstruction.

Brogan, 22 and 186 centimetres, has no mental scars from the knee surgery. She is averaging 11 points and eight rebounds in the WNBL, similar figures to last year, and in two international tournaments has reclaimed her playing time and increased her status in the team.

Coach Tom Maher says Brogan and veterans Rachael Sporn and Sandy Brondello are the three who have made the most progress since the world championships.

Brogan's performance in last month's five-Test series against South Korea was the watershed for her, putting the reconstructed knee to the test internationally and finding no mental or physical problems.

"I was a bit tentative because I wasn't sure what my role was and where I fitted back in," she said. "Tom said he wasn't worried what position I played. He said just play the hardest you can and you'll earn a spot."

She has done that, starting as centre with Sporn on the court and moving to power foward when Jenny Whittle comes on.

Brogan believes she is playing better defence and is more involved in offence, setting screens, feeding the scorers, grabbing rebounds and developing an outside shot.

She says the biggest plus is that since the WNBL pre-season tournament at Easter she has shown Maher and teammates that they can have confidence in her again. "They know I'm not bludging on my knee," she says.

The other confidence factor for player and team is the way they are approaching the Olympics. Brogan says that after their fourth at the world championships last year they know they have their best shot at a medal, even the gold medal.

Maher takes it one step further. "It will be tough, but there will be no preparation excuses and we can have a dip for gold, not just pay lip service to it," he says.

Maher predicts the Opals' depth will be their strength. "Most European teams have strong starting fives but poor benches," he says.

"Our second five is tough, so we can make changes in games."